The iPod Touch is a line of

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone and iPod Touch; the t ...

iOS

-based

mobile devices A mobile device (or handheld computer) is a computer A computer is a machine that can be programmed to carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations automatically. Modern computers can perform generic sets of operations known a ...

designed and marketed by

Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is an American multinational Multinational may refer to: * Multinational corporation, a corporate organization operating in multiple countries * Multinational force, a military body from multiple countries * Multinational state, a ...

with a

touchscreen-controlled

user interface In the industrial design Industrial design is a process of design A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process, or the result of that plan or specificati ...

. As with other

iPod The iPod is a line of portable media players and multi-purpose mobile devices designed and marketed by Apple Inc. The iPod Classic#1st generation, first version was released on October 23, 2001, about months after the Macintosh version ...

iPod

models, it can be used as a music player and a

handheld gaming

device, but it can also be used as a

digital camera A digital camera is a camera that captures photographs in digital memory. Most cameras produced today are digital, largely replacing those that capture images on photographic film. Digital cameras are now widely incorporated into mobile devices ...

, a

web browser A web browser (commonly referred to as a browser) is application software Application software (app for short) is computing software designed to carry out a specific task other than one relating to the operation of the computer itself, typical ...

and for messaging. It is similar in design to the

iPhone {{Infobox information appliance , name = iPhone , logo = , image = , caption = The front face of an iPhone 13 Pro The iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max are smartphones designed and marketed by Apple Inc. They are the flagship smart ...

iPhone

, but it connects to the Internet only through

Wi-Fi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network A wireless network is a computer network that uses wireless data connections between network nodes. Wireless networking is a method by which homes, telecommunications networks and business installatio ...

Wi-Fi

and does not use

cellular network A cellular network or mobile network is a communication network A telecommunications network is a group of nodes In general, a node is a localized swelling (a "knot") or a point of intersection (a Vertex (graph theory), vertex). Node may re ...

data, and so is not a

smartphone A smartphone is a Mobile device, portable device that combines Mobile phone, mobile telephone and Mobile computing, computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and exten ...

. The iPod Touch was introduced in 2007; some 100 million iPod Touch units were sold by May 2013. The current iPod Touch, released on May 28, 2019, is the seventh-generation model. iPod Touch models are sold by storage space and color; all models of the same generation typically offer identical features, performance, and operating system upgrades. An exception was the fifth generation, in which the low-end (16 GB) model was initially sold without a rear-facing camera and in a single color. The iPod Touch has been the only product in Apple's iPod product line since the discontinuation of the

iPod Nano The iPod Nano (stylised and marketed as iPod nano) is a discontinued portable media player designed and formerly marketed by Apple Inc. The first generation model was introduced on September 7, 2005, as a replacement for the iPod Mini, using ...

and

iPod Shuffle The iPod Shuffle (stylized and marketed as iPod shuffle) is a discontinued digital audio player designed and formerly marketed by Apple Inc. It was the smallest model in Apple's iPod family, and was the first iPod to use flash memory. The first ...

on July 27, 2017, after which Apple revised the storage and pricing for the iPod Touch with 32 and 128 GB of storage.

Features

Software

The iPod Touch runs Apple's

Unix-based

iOS

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software System software is software designed to provide a platform for other software. Examples of system software include operating systems (OS) like macOS, Linux, Android (operating system), Android and Mi ...

used on the iPhone, and includes bundled software to browse the Internet, view maps, send and receive email, view media. Users type on a

virtual keyboard A virtual keyboard is a software component that allows the input of characters without the need for physical keys. The interaction with the virtual keyboard happens mostly via a touchscreen interface, but can also take place in a different form ...

displayed on the

screen Screen or Screens may refer to: Arts * Screen printing (also called ''silkscreening''), a method of printing * Big screen, a nickname associated with the motion picture industry * Split screen (filmmaking), a film composition paradigm in which mult ...

screen

. Apple operates online stores, allowing users to buy and directly download music, videos and third-party software. From launch, the iPod Touch was described by journalists as an "iPhone without the phone", and each iPod Touch model to date has been introduced with the same

release Release may refer to: * Film release, the public distribution of a film * Legal release, a legal instrument * News release, a communication directed at the news media * Release (ISUP), a code to identify and debug events in ISUP signaling * Release ...

of iOS as the contemporary iPhone model. In June 2011, iOS 5, the fifth major release of iOS software, was announced at Apple's

WWDC 2011

, which added notification,

messaging A message is a discrete unit of communication Communication (from Latin ''communicare'', meaning "to share") is the act of developing Semantics, meaning among Subject (philosophy), entities or Organization, groups through the use of suffi ...

and reminder features. Apple limited some features, most notably the voice control system

Siri Siri ( ) is a virtual assistant remote control In electronics Electronics comprises the physics, engineering, technology and applications that deal with the emission, flow and control of electrons in vacuum and matter. It uses ac ...

, to the iPhone.

iOS 6 iOS 6 is the iOS version history, sixth major release of the iOS mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc, being the successor to iOS 5. It was announced at the company's Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, Worldwide Developers Confere ...

, which was released on September 19, 2012 for the fourth and fifth generation iPod Touch models, contains 200 new features including

Passbook A passbook or bankbook is a paper book used to record bank or building society A building society is a financial institution owned by its members as a mutual organization. Building societies offer banking A bank is a financial instit ...

Facebook Facebook is an American online social media and social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, an ...

integration and

Apple Maps Apple Maps (or simply Maps) is a web mapping service developed by Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is an American multinational Multinational may refer to: * Multinational corporation, a corporate organization operating in multiple countries * Multin ...

. The fifth generation iPod Touch gained the ability to take panoramic photos, a feature shared with the

iPhone 4S The iPhone 4S (retroactively stylized with a lowercase 's' as iPhone 4s as of September 2013) is a smartphone A smartphone is a portable device A mobile device (or handheld computer) is a computer A computer is a machine tha ...

and

iPhone 5 The iPhone 5 is a smartphone that was designed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is the List of iOS devices, 6th generation iPhone, succeeding the iPhone 4S and preceding both the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C, 5C. It was formally unveiled as part of ...

. On June 8, 2015, it was announced at the

WWDC Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) is a conference held annually by The conference is normally held in the in , but in 2020, WWDC was held online at from June 22 to June 26, and in 2021, it will also be held online from June 7 to J ...

that the iPod Touch fifth generation would support

iOS 9 iOS 9 is the ninth major release of the iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile de ...

, along with other A5 Chip devices. This makes the iPod Touch fifth generation the first iPod Touch to support four major versions of iOS. Early iOS updates prior to iOS 4 have been paid for owners of supported iPod Touch models. Apple received criticism for this decision and for excluding certain features from the iPod Touch software that the iPhone included. Apple's position was that they could add features for free to the iPhone because the revenue from it is accounted for on a subscription basis under accounting rules, rather than as a one time payment (as iPhones were often sold with a carrier contract). At WWDC in June 2010, as of iOS 4, Steve Jobs announced that Apple had "found a way" to make subsequent OS upgrades available free to iPod Touch owners.

Setup and synchronization

iPod Touch units running iOS 4 or earlier require a Mac or PC to be set up for the first time. Downloading apps or media from the iTunes Store and App Store does not require a computer, though media not purchased through the iTunes Store still has to be added through a computer. New iPods bought after October 12, 2011 have iOS 5.0 or later preloaded, and can be set up wirelessly, without the need of a PC or Mac.

Purchasing content

To purchase content on the iPod Touch, the user must create an Apple ID or have an existing account. With this account one may download music and videos from the

iTunes Store The iTunes Store is a software-based online digital media Digital media means any media (communication), media that are encoded in Machine-readable data, machine-readable formats. Digital media can be created, viewed, distributed, modified, ...

, apps from the

App Store An app store (or app marketplace) is a type of platform for computer software called , often in a mobile context. Apps provide a specific set of functions which, by definition, do not include the running of the computer itself. Complex software d ...

, or books from the

Apple Books Store Apple Books (formerly iBooks, between January 2010 to September 2018) is an e-book An electronic book, also known as an e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in Digital data, digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, ...

. An Apple ID account created without a credit card can be used to get free content, and gift cards can be used to pay for apps instead of using a credit card.

Third-party applications

The only official way to obtain third-party applications for the iPod Touch is through Apple's

, which is a branch of

. The App Store application, available in all versions of iOS from 2.0 onwards, allows users to browse and download applications from a single online repository (hosted by Apple) with the iTunes Store. Sideloading apps outside the App Store is done through the

Xcode Xcode is Apple's integrated development environment#REDIRECT Integrated development environment {{Redirect category shell, 1= {{R from other capitalisation ... (IDE) for macOS macOS (; previously Mac OS X and later OS ...

application, and is intended for developers and enterprises, though tools for sideloading outside of Xcode exist, and are mainly used for applications not allowed in the App Store.

Design and hardware

The iPod Touch is generally similar to the

models prior to the iPhone X (excluding the second generation iPhone SE). Compared to a same-generation iPhone, an iPod Touch is thinner, lighter and less expensive, while lacking some hardware and software features.

Steve Jobs Steven Paul Jobs (; February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American business magnate A business magnate is someone who has achieved great success and enormous wealth through the ownership of multiple lines of enterprise. The term ch ...

once referred to the iPod Touch as "training wheels for the iPhone". All iPod Touch models lack biometric authentication, 3D Touch, NFC,

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government) is the national ...

GPS

, an earpiece speaker and a noise-cancelling microphone. Depending on the generation, the iPod Touch may have a smaller or otherwise inferior display and camera(s). Newer models (5th, 6th, and 7th generation) lack the ambient light sensor that makes automatic brightness available. The first generation iPod Touch lacks a built-in speaker, and the first, second, and third generation iPod Touch lack a microphone, a camera, and a flash. Starting with the

4th generation iPod TouchFourth is the ordinal form of the Four (number), number four. Fourth or the fourth may refer to: * Fourth (album), ''Fourth'' (album), a 1971 album by Soft Machine * Fourth (angle), in ancient astronomical works an angle equal to of of an arcse ...

, a camera and microphone were added, and starting with the 5th generation iPod Touch, an LED flash was added. The iPod Touch has no cellular modem, and therefore cannot directly make phone calls on the

public switched telephone network The public switched telephone network (PSTN) provides Communications infrastructure, infrastructure and services for public telecommunication. The PSTN is the aggregate of the world's circuit-switched telephone networks that are operated by nati ...

. However, it can make VoIP calls such as

FaceTime FaceTime is a proprietary videotelephony Videotelephony comprises the technologies for the reception and transmission of audio-video Video is an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting Broadcasting i ...

, and send

iMessage iMessage is an instant messaging service developed by Apple Inc. and launched in 2011. iMessage functions exclusively on Apple platforms: macOS, iOS, iPadOS, and watchOS. Core features of iMessage, available on all supported platforms, include ...

s to other iPhones,

Mac

iPad iPad is a line of tablet computer A tablet computer, commonly shortened to tablet, is a mobile device A mobile device (or handheld computer) is a computer A computer is a machine that can be programmed to carry out sequenc ...

iPad

s, and iPod Touch models with an Apple ID. The 5th generation iPod Touch and later can forward and receive standard phone calls through a separate iPhone (a feature introduced in iOS 8), with the Wi-Fi Calling feature. The two devices must be linked to the same Apple ID, and the iPhone's carrier must support this feature.

Connectivity

The iPod Touch can communicate with a computer through Wi-Fi or USB using a cable and a dock connector. iPod models released before 2012 feature a 30-pin dock connector (known colloquially as the iPod dock connector), which carried analog signals. The

fifth Fifth is the Ordinal number (linguistics), ordinal form of the number 5, five. Fifth or The Fifth may refer to: * Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, as in the expression "pleading the Fifth" * Fifth column, a political term * Fifth ...

, sixth, and seventh generations of the iPod Touch feature a new digital

dock connector A dock connector is a connector used to attach a mobile electronic device simultaneously to multiple external resources. The dock connector will typically carry a variety of signals and power, through a single connector, to simplify the process ...

, called

Lightning Lightning is a naturally occurring electrostatic discharge Electrostatic discharge (ESD) is the sudden flow of electricity Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion Image:Leaving Yongsan ...

, which was introduced alongside the

, fourth generation iPad and first generation iPad Mini, and the seventh generation iPod Nano models. This new connector is smaller than the previous one allowing for a slimmer form factor, and is reversible. Various accessories are available to connect the Apple Lightning connector to the older 30-pin dock connector or

USB Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard ''Industry Standard'' is a 1982 album by Dixie Dregs, The Dregs. It is their only album featuring vocals (by Alex Ligertwood of Santana (band), Santana and Patrick Simmons of The Doobie Brot ...

USB

, although not all old accessories will work, because the Lightning connector cannot handle analog signals.

User-made modifications

Like all of Apple's iOS devices, the iPod Touch is a tightly controlled or

closed platform A closed platform, walled garden, or closed ecosystem is a software system wherein the carrier or service provider has control over software application, applications, digital content, content, and/or Digital media, media, and restricts convenient ...

. Communication between apps is limited and controlled, and Apple is the only authorized software vendor for firmware and applications. Hackers have attempted to " jailbreak" all iOS devices to enable forbidden or unsupported features, such as multitasking in iOS versions before 4.0, themes for the home screen, and enabling the battery-percentage indicator (limited to the iPhone prior to the seventh generation iPod Touch). Jailbreaks for the iPod Touch first surfaced a month after the original model was released in September 2007, when

hackers A computer A computer is a machine that can be programmed to carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations automatically. Modern computers can perform generic sets of operations known as Computer program, programs. These progr ...

released

JailbreakMe ''JailbreakMe'' is a series of jailbreaks for Apple's iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's ...

1.0 (also called "AppSnapp") to jailbreak iPhone OS 1.1.1. This allowed users to install third-party programs on their devices before Apple permitted this with iPhone OS 2. Apple's warranty statement implies that an iPod Touch after jailbreaking or other modification made by unofficial means is not covered by Apple's warranty. Jailbreaking is a violation of the

terms and conditions A contractual term is "any provision forming part of a contract". Each term gives rise to a contractual Law of obligations, obligation, Breach of contract, breach of which can give rise to lawsuit, litigation. Not all terms are stated expressly ...

for using iOS. While the jailbreaking process can normally be undone by performing a restore through iTunes, there is a risk of rendering the device unusable.

Models

, there have been seven models of iPod Touch devices produced. * ''1st generation'' (2007–2008) Supported until June 2010 (iPhone OS 3.1.3) * ''2nd generation'' (2008–2010) Supported until March 2011 (iOS 4.2.1) * ''3rd generation'' (2009–2010) Supported until September 2012 (iOS 5.1.1) * '' 4th generation'' (2010–2013) Supported until February 2014 (iOS 6.1.6) * '' 5th generation'' (2012–2015) Supported until September 2016 (iOS 9.3.5) *'' 6th generation'' (2015–2019) Partial support only (iOS 12.5.5) * '' 7th generation'' (2019–present) Supported until October 2021 (iOS 15.1)

Reception

Upon launch in 2007 the first generation iPod Touch received mostly good reviews for its display, its full Web browser, and YouTube support. However it was also criticized for being a "stripped down" iPhone, for lacking external volume buttons, and for having a lower-quality display. Notable competing products as of 2009 included Creative's ZEN X-Fi2, Sony's Walkman X Series, and Microsoft's

Zune HD The Zune HD is a portable media player A portable media player (PMP) or digital audio player (DAP) is a portable consumer electronics Consumer electronics or home electronics are electronic ( analog or digital) equipment intended for e ...

Zune HD

; and as of 2011, the Samsung Galaxy Player and Sony Walkman Z Series. Later models received a more lukewarm reception, with reviewers questioning whether an iPod Touch made sense as a product in a time where smartphones had become more affordable.

Notes

References

External links

* * – official site
Technical Specifications (all models)
on

{{Authority control

Touch The somatosensory system is a part of the sensory nervous system The sensory nervous system is a part of the nervous system In biology, the classical doctrine of the nervous system determines that it is a Complex system, highly comple ...

IOS Touchscreen portable media players ITunes Computer-related introductions in 2007 Products introduced in 2007 Digital audio players